Unaitas Sacco eyes ICT to grow presence, profit

Unaitas Sacco Society plans to roll out a data centre and information technology infrastructure that is expected to improve its service delivery on financial solutions to the customers.

Sacco chairman Joseph Kabugu said the society will open three branches in Kisumu and Eldoret this month as part of the initiative to serve its members in the two regions and also increase brand visibility.

Kabugu said besides branches, the society will also establish other channels including ATM, mobile banking and agency banking to increase access and enhance business efficiency.

“The agency banking services launched in November 2017 surpassed our targets in terms of the agents on board, deposit attractions and transactions.

We want to ride on this feat and do much better this year,” said Kabugu. Unaitas Sacco chief executive Tony Kamau said the planned data centre and IT infrastructure will enable the society serve its members efficiently.

“The data centre and infrastructure roll-out is expected to put the Sacco society on the growth path,” said Kamau. He said the sacco declared an after-tax profit increase of 26.2 per cent compared to what its members were paid in 2016.

During the Annual General Meeting, shareholders unanimously approved a payment of Sh273.9 million – which was a 65.5 per cent increment compared to Sh192.1 million paid in 2016 as dividends. Only nine per cent of the dividend will be paid to members by April 13, 2018.

The sacco reported an after-tax profit of Sh338.04 million for the period that ended December 31, 2017 up from Sh267.8 million that it reported in 2016.

Kamau said the society leveraged on non-interest segments to boost its profitability following the interest rates capping.